Irene van Dyk created history in the trans-Tasman netball league last night by becoming the first player to break the 3000 goal barrier in the competition.

However, she warned that the Pulse will need to improve if they want to live with the Australian sides in the league.

They ran out 53-47 victors against the winless Northern Mystics at Trusts Stadium last night to move themselves towards the top of the table.

It was a comfortable win, but Van Dyk said it was a performance that won't be good enough when they come up against Aussie sides in future weeks.

"We made a lot of unforced errors and every time we felt we should pull away they came back at us," van Dyk told Fairfax Media.

"So it's definitely something we need to work on to make sure that we score off the turnovers and once we get a lead to maintain it and then try to get a bigger lead.

So there were up and downs really.

"There were good patches, but we need to string together 60 minutes of good patches, especially when we play against the Australian sides, because they ride you the whole time and to be able to focus for the whole 60 minutes is quite a challenge."

Van Dyk was stuck on 2999 goals for the eight minutes in the fourth quarter before she scored again in the last minute of the match.

She was presented with a bunch of flowers for her achievement after the game, but said it wasn't something she had been thinking about.

"It's nice to clock them up, but it's just part of the game," she said.

The Mystics continue to struggle to get that first win of the season and never really looked like taking it at this game.

However, their coach Debbie Fuller said they are improving and this certainly wasn't a thrashing similar to the ones they received from the Vixens and Magic.

"What we put on court was much improved as a group, so we've just got to keep building with that," Fuller said.

"The Pulse were potentially a bit more patient than us on attack and we can't be hesitant with the ball.

"There were much better connections right through the court than we've had before.

"You can't bury your head in the sand and stay there, we've got to keep moving forward, which we said we'd do right from that first loss against the Vixens."

The Pulse won the first three quarters of the match, but it was in the second and third of those where they were able to move away, thanks to the sharp shooting of van Dyk and Donna Wilkins, who both missed three shots each over the match.

Catherine Latu was impressive for the Mystics, missing just once from 31 attempts, but concern will continue for Maria Tuiatai who goaled 17 of her 24 attempts.

But the area of the game where the Pulse really showed their dominance was in the mid court and defence as they stifled their opponents and launched quick attacks that their beleaguered opponents couldn't cope with.

Next up for the Pulse is the Tactix ands after that they'll face the Swifts, so it won't be until then that it will be known if the team have taken heed of van Dyk's words.